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there was a squadron devoted to the nod of the Treasury, doing whatever he had directed, and ready to do what he should direct. That if the equilibrium of the three great bodies, legislative, executive and judiciary, could be preserved, if the legislature could be kept independent, he should never fear the result of our government; but that he could not be otherwise than uneasy, when he saw that the executive had swallowed up the legislative branch. As to the establishment of our credit, the vaunted object of the financial system, &c. all that was necessary for this purpose, was an efficient government and an honest one, declaring it would sacredly pay its debts, laying taxes for this purpose and applying them to it. He enforced the great topic of all his conversations and his letters, to wit, the importance of the President's continuing in office another term; that his presence was absolutely necessary; that he was the only man in the United States, who possessed the confidence of the whole; that the government was founded in opinion and confidence, and the longer he remained, the stronger would become the habits of the people in submitting to it, and thinking it a thing to be maintained; that there was no other person, who would be thought any thing more than the head of a party. That the discontents, which were more extensive than the President supposed, were not directed against him, but against the subordinate members of the administration; that these discontents had, indeed, spread over the whole South; that they were grounded on seeing their judgments and interests sacrificed to those of the Eastern States, on every occasion, and their belief that it was the effect of a mercenary squadron in Congress, at the command of the Treasury. That as to himself the same reasons did not operate to demand his continuance in the administration; that his concurrence was of much less importance than the President seemed to imagine; that he kept himself aloof from all cabal and correspondence on the subject of the government, and saw and spoke with as few as he could. That as to a coalition with Mr. Hamilton, if by that was meant, that either was to sacrifice his general system to the other, it was impossible. They had both, undoubtedly, formed their conclusions after the most mature consideration, and principles conscientiously adopted, could not be relinquished on either side. His devout wish and prayer was, to see both Houses of Congress cleansed of all persons interested in the bank or public stocks; and that a pure Legisla

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ture being given to the country, he should always be ready to acquiesce under their determinations, even if contrary to his own opinions; for that he subscribed to the principle that the will of the majority, honestly expressed, should give the law.*

On the 6th of August, 1793, the President called on Mr. Jefferson at his house in the country. He had received a letter from him, of July 31st, announcing his intention of resigning at the close of the following month; and he made that letter the painful subject of his visit. He now expressed his repentance at not having resigned himself, and how painfully it was increased by seeing that he was to be deserted by those on whose aid he most counted; that he did not know where he should look to find characters to fill the offices; that mere talents did not suffice for the department of State, but it required a person conversant in foreign affairs, and acquainted with foreign courts; that Colonel Hamilton had a few weeks before written to him, informing that private as well as public reasons had brought him to the determination of retiring, and that he should do it towards the close of the next session. He expressed great apprehensions at the fermentation which seemed to be working in the public mind; that many descriptions of persons, actuated by different causes, appeared to be uniting; what it would end in he knew not; a new Congress was to assemble, more numerous, perhaps of a different spirit; the first expressions of their sentiment would be important; if Mr. Jefferson would only continue with him to the end of that, it would relieve him considerably.

Mr. Jefferson expressed to him, in addition to his excessive repugnance to public life, the particular uneasiness of his present situation, where the laws of society obliged him always to move exactly in the circle which he knew to bear him peculiar hatred; to wit, among the wealthy aristocrats, the merchants connected closely with England, the new created paper fortunes; that thus surrounded, his words were caught, multiplied, misconstrued, and even

* Ana.

+ His first term had expired on the 4th of March, 1793. Having consented to a re-election, at the earnest solicitations of all parties, he again received the unanimous vote of the nation. Mr. Adams was also re-elected Vice-President, but not with equal unanimity. Of one hundred and thirty two votes, Mr. Adams had seventy-seven, and Geo. Clinton of N. York, the republican candidate, fifty. The States of Virginia, New-York, North Carolina, and Georgia, were unanimous for Mr. Clinton. Kentucky could not forget the great protector of the West, and gave her vote for Mr. Jefferson, although he was not a candidate.

fabricated and spread abroad to his injury; that he saw also there was such an opposition of views between himself and another part of the administration, as to render it peculiarly unpleasing, and to destroy the necessary harmony; that he believed the next Congress would attempt nothing material, but to render their own body independent; that the republican party, so far as his knowledge extended, were firm in their dispositions to support the present frame of government; and that on the whole, no crisis existed, which threatened any danger.

The President entreated him to remain in until the end of another quarter, the last of December; which would carry them through the difficulties of the present year, by which time he was satisfied the affairs of Europe would be settled; either France would be overwhelmed by the Confederacy, or the latter would give up the contest. By that time, too, Congress would have manifested its character. He went lengthily into the difficulties of naming a successor, canvassed the characters of various conspicuous persona ges, without being satisfied with any of them, except Mr. Madison, whom he despaired of obtaining; and concluded, by earnestly desiring Mr. Jefferson to take time and consider whether he could not continue with him another quarter; for that, like a man going to the gallows, he was anxious to put it off as long as he could; but if he persisted, he must then look about him, and do the best he could towards providing a successor.*

With the last pressing solicitation of the President, Mr. Jefferson at length complied; and accordingly postponed his resignation until the last day of the year, 1793, as before stated. The political effects upon the government of the United States, of the retirement of this minister, realized the worst apprehensions of General Washington. They even verified the worst predictions of the opponents of the administration. They broke out wildly, and spread themselves with accumulative and disastrous potency, through the remaining period of the eighteenth century; when they were suddenly brought to a stand by the triumphant interposition of the people, in a peaceable and constitutional way. Some developments of that dark history, which have been left by Mr. Jefferson, will appear in the succeeding chapter. Meanwhile, the following para

* Ana.

graph, extracted from his private papers, will not be thought irrelevant or uninstructive.

"From the moment of my retiring from the administration, the federalists got unchecked hold of General Washington. His memory was already sensibly impaired by age, the firm tone of mind for which he had been remarkable, was beginning to relax, its energy was abated, a listlessness of labor, a desire for tranquillity had crept on him, and a willingness to let others act, and even think for him. Like the rest of mankind, he was disgusted with atrocities of the French revolution, and was not sufficiently aware of the difference between the rabble- who were used as instruments of their perpetration, and the steady and rational character of the American people, in which he had not sufficient confidence. The opposition too, of the republicans to the British treaty, and the zealous support of the federalists in that unpopular but favorite measure of theirs, had made him all their own. Understanding, moreover, that I disapproved of that treaty, and copiously nourished with falsehoods by a malignant neighbor of mine, who ambitioned to be his correspondent, he had become alienated from myself personally, as from the republican body generally of his fellow citizens; and he wrote the letters to Mr. Adams and Mr. Carroll, over which, in devotion to his imperishable fame, we must for ever weep as monuments of mortal decay."

CHAPTER XI.

The history of the United States from the commencement of the year 1794, to the memorable epoch of 1800, is a history of unremitting struggles between the advocates of monarchy and republicanism.

This political drama, of which the present recollection is but as a dream of the night, was scarcely less terrible in its course, or less momentous in its consequences, than the internal conflict of the Revolution. The latter, by an unexampled exertion of moral agency, revolutionized the government from a monarchical to a republican structure; the former, by the instrumentality of the same peaceable power, against the same political antagonists, saved it from retrograding into its original deformity. That this was the real ground and nature of the contest, is too notorious to be controverted. Without resorting to the private revelations of a principal

actor,* touching the secret transactions of the government, and the avowed opinions of its predominant agents, or without recurring to the newspaper conflagrations of that tempestuous season, the public and written history of the United States abounds with satisfactory testimony on this point.

The third Congress of the United States, the political character of which had been anticipated with great alarm by the monarchical party, and with some uneasiness by the President, assembled on the 3d of December, 1793. Notwithstanding the atrocious turn of the French Revolution, with which the republican party had become identified, from their sympathy in its principles only, the last elections had secured a republican majority in the popular branch of the Legislature; but, as corruption had become the established principle, at head quarters, the majority was too small not to be easy of debauchery, on questions of vital importance to the party which preponderated in the administration. The political character of the Senate remained essentially unaltered.

At this session, it will be recollected, the celebrated Report of Mr. Jefferson on Commerce and Navigation, was submitted to Congress. The comparative expose which this document presented, of the state of our relations with England and France, displayed in such vivid and incontrovertible contrast the conduct of those governments towards the United States, as had an electric effect upon the ele ments of the two political parties. The monarchists, who were chained in theory to the British Constitution, and embarked in the design of assimulating ours to that, whose feelings and interests were essentially British, considered the Report as an insidious attack upon their patron nation, and an unmanly truckling to France. The republicans, on the other hand, were gratified at seeing a true exposition of our foreign relations held up to the view of the nation; and they espoused with ardor the principle of commercial discrimination recommended by the author.

This principle had been a favorite one with Mr. Jefferson, from the origin of the government. In his letters to America, while in France, he had constantly and most strenuously enforced the idea. To make the interest of every nation on the globe, stand surety for its justice to us, and to make injury to them follow injury to us, in

* Jefferson's ANA, which abounds in irresistable proofs on this head.

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